Canadian film star Tantoo Cardinal returns to the stage in Toronto as a 'Witch'

The role marks the Cree and Métis actor’s first Toronto stage appearance since 2018, when she played Gertrude in Richard Rose’s production of “Hamlet” at Tarragon Theatre.

“Doing theatre is like running the mile, whereas making a film is like a 100-yard dash,” said Cardinal on the phone in an exclusive interview from her home in Edmonton.

“In film, you get to do things over and over, and can work on getting all kinds of nuance, and then the editor gets to decide what your performance is. Plays give you such a powerful interaction with other humans.”

Silverman’s satire, an update of the Jacobean drama “The Witch of Edmonton,” follows a devil figure named Scratch who wanders into a quiet village and offers to grant wishes in exchange for souls. He expects Elizabeth, who’s been ostracized as a witch, will be an easy target, but she proves resistant to his charms.

“I like her sensibilities and the questions she’s dealing with in the play,” said Cardinal about the titular character. “Her experiences have led her to this place of sitting down and really considering what old Scratch is talking about.”

Cardinal was drawn to the script because of what it says about women.

“It gives us an opportunity to look at how women are perceived and how women have been treated,” she said. “These are things that could be considered heavy, but they’re handled in a fun way.”

Soulpepper artistic director Paolo Santalucia said in a statement that the company is thrilled to have Cardinal at the centre of its upcoming production, which will be directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster and co-star Shawn Ahmed, Thomas Mitchell Barnet, Oliver Dennis, Nicholas Eddie and Heeyun Park.

“Her fierce legacy as an artist and activist stands in lockstep with Silverman’s text,” said Santalucia. “It’s the kind of pairing you hope for when programming a play like this.”

Some of Cardinal’s previous stage roles include Regan in the National Arts Centre’s headline-making all-Indigenous production of “King Lear” in 2012, directed by Peter Hinton-Davis and starring August Schellenberg. And a few years ago, she played the sole female role in an acclaimed Los Angeles production of Matthew López’s “The Inheritance.”

Cardinal’s son, Cliff Cardinal, is a theatre-maker in his own right. While the two don’t have immediate plans to collaborate on a stage show, her son’s hit “The Land Acknowledgement” has got Tantoo Cardinal thinking about the purpose and significance of those pre-show acknowledgments.

“When it was a new thing, people paid attention to (the land acknowledgment), but now it feels like just lip service,” she said. “A lot of people presenting them could care less about what they’re saying as long as it gives them good marks and keeps the funds coming in. Then again, it does give people the opportunity to say something and to think about the issue. In the end, we all have to get down with Mother. The Earth and the natural forces need to be honoured.”

See soulpepper.ca for more information about “Witch.”